Glamour Interview: Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore and Alicia Keys Talk!

What do the superstars you see here have in common—besides their megawatt status and constant pursuit by paparazzi? A message they're sharing for the first time, here in these pages. This month the three friends team up to help launch the women's advocacy project of the year: Five, a series of films about women and breast cancer that, stitched together in a two-hour block airing on Lifetime on October 10, powerfully show how breast cancer affects women's lives, families and friendships. Each of our cover girls directed a film; stars of the pieces include some of Hollywood's strongest actresses, like Patricia Clarkson, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Rosario Dawson. Ready to hear more? Let Aniston, Moore and Keys tell you why they got involved—and what else is going on in their jam-packed, bold-faced lives.

Jennifer Aniston

Aniston, an executive producer and a major force behind Five, directed* Mia*, a film about a woman who initially—and wrongly—thinks her diagnosis is a death sentence. She sat down to talk with her friend and fellow executive producer Kristin Hahn.

KRISTIN HAHN: Take us through how Five came to be.

JENNIFER ANISTON: Well, about a year ago, Susan G. Komen for the Cure approached you and me with the idea. We were intrigued by the challenge of creating short stories that would defy audiences' expectation of the subject. We wanted to balance the drama with humor and irreverence because that's what's helped *our *friends who've faced this get through their treatment. So we approached Francesca Silvestri and Kevin Chinoy, who produce *Glamour'*s Reel Moments, which is how I came to direct my first short film, one of the best experiences of my life. Then we joined forces with [producer] Paula Wagner and [cocreator of Friends] Marta Kauffman. We wanted stories that were informative without being heavy-handed. Oh, and they needed to be brilliantly written. Other than that, our goals were small. [Both laugh.]

KRISTIN HAHN: Why do we still need to tell stories about breast cancer after 20 years of awareness?

JENNIFER ANISTON: Because we don't yet have a cure, and cancer has grown 30,000 snakes out of its head. We need to go at this Medusa with all the firepower we've got, from research and legislation, to awareness and early detection, to support groups and compassion for everyone who walks through this. We need to show up for them, to talk to them, to not be afraid.

KRISTIN HAHN: You were very active in the Stand Up to Cancer special that Laura Ziskin [producer of films like Spider-man, who lost her battle with breast cancer in June] produced. What do you hope her legacy will be?

JENNIFER ANISTON: Oh my God, what a fighter. Her legacy is in everyone she touched. Everything she was so good at, she funneled into the cancer cause. She is not to be forgotten.

KRISTIN HAHN: What do you want people to walk away with after seeing Five?

JENNIFER ANISTON: We want people to walk away with hope and information but feel incredibly entertained. Cancer affects all of us, whether you're a daughter, mother, sister, friend, coworker, doctor, patient. These films touch on that reality. The film I directed is called Mia, and it's about a woman who takes her diagnosis as a death sentence and gives up—only to discover she's gone into remission. We want people to know it is very possible to conquer breast cancer.

KRISTIN HAHN: But is there something people can learn from Mia's "live like you're dying" attitude?

JENNIFER ANISTON: Yes: Don't wait until life has given you an expiration date to live. When Mia's given this loud ticking clock, she finally goes out and takes risks and pursues her dreams. Hopefully women out there can do it without a diagnosis.

KRISTIN HAHN:Glamour wants to know: What do you still get giddy about? Describe something that made you "little kid" giddy.

JENNIFER ANISTON: Putting my feet and handprints in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre [on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame]. That got me giddy! It was a milestone in my career, which was surreal because I still think I'm at the beginning of it. I remember when they told me about the honor, I thought, Really? I mean, I just did Ferris Bueller [the TV show]. I just did Leprechaun! I don't understand! I thought, I just had a year of failures. [Laughs.] I've never lost that feeling of "Oh God, I hope I get this job!" I don't want to get too used to any of this because then entitlement sets in, and that's the kiss of death.

KRISTIN HAHN: There's actually been a flurry of honors for you these past months. You received the Decade of Hotness Award from Spike TV, and you referenced the fact that being this side of 40, the award was not lost on you. How is it being this side of 40 in an industry that values youth over everything else?

JENNIFER ANISTON: Being this side of 40 feels like what I should have felt being this side of 25: in my body, in my heart, happy with my life, and OK with whatever bumps in the road present themselves.

KRISTIN HAHN: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to yourself at 22?

JENNIFER ANISTON: Honestly, whatever angst-y times I've had came after fame, which we both know was after 22. When I was 22, I was having a ball! I would have nothing to say to myself. [*Laughs. *] I was living in Laurel Canyon with my best friends, including you, and we were dreaming of creating things like Five.

KRISTIN HAHN: You're a creature of habit. At one point you got flack for being photographed in the same bikini two years in a row…

JENNIFER ANISTON: …and I'll wear it for as many years as the strings still tie! Bathing suits now have so much hardware on them that they singe your skin. When you take your bikini off, it looks like you've been branded with crop circles and lightning bolts and words like Gucci!

KRISTIN HAHN: People are obsessed with your love life! So here's a Mad Lib for you to fill in: "I couldn't be in a relationship without ________________."

JENNIFER ANISTON: A human being! OK, in all seriousness, I would say I couldn't be in a relationship without equality, generosity, integrity, spirit, kindness and humor. And awesomeness.

KRISTIN HAHN: There are so many stories about you in the tabloids that are completely false. Is there anything you'd like to set the record straight on for Glamour readers?

JENNIFER ANISTON: There's not enough space in this article. Not even enough pages in this magazine! The truth is, most celebrities are doing the same things most other people are doing every day…work, have dinner, hang out with your friends when you can, try and keep up with the crazy world we're living in and squeeze in some zzz's. There's not nearly as much stealing and obsessing and middle-of-the-night secret calls to ex-boyfriends and scheming and cheating [as they lead you to believe]. Most of it's just bulls—t, however entertaining.

Demi Moore

Moore directed the Five film* Charlotte*, in which a little girl watches her mother die of breast cancer and becomes determined to help others with the disease. Patty Jenkins, award-winning director of* Monster* and Five film* Pearl*, interviewed Moore about her work—and her life.

PATTY JENKINS: Why did you want to direct your piece in Five?DEMI MOORE: I've known people affected by breast cancer, and since I finished the project, someone in our family has also been diagnosed. But I think that so often there is that "out of sight, out of mind" feeling, like breast cancer is happening to other people, not you. Before this project came up, even I really didn't want to pay attention. I feel that this came to me to make me pay attention. What I've learned from all the work Ashton and I do is that we so often don't address any cause with enough urgency.

PATTY JENKINS: Yes—you and Ashton are very involved in fighting sex trafficking. [They launched the Demi and Ashton Foundation; their "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" videos have gone viral.] How did that happen?

DEMI MOORE: We saw a documentary profiling girls in Cambodia as young as five, six, seven, who were being trafficked, and it really stopped us in our tracks. We said, "We can't live in this world and not do something about it."

PATTY JENKINS: That's amazing. You're also well-known for tweeting. Why do you use Twitter?

DEMI MOORE: Originally, Ash and I were just playing, seeing what it did and what it meant. I'm intensely private, and I've openly shown annoyance at the paparazzi. That's served in the past to create an image of me where I'm always frowning or looking angry. I saw Twitter as this opportunity to connect with people and actually show a side of myself that is much lighter. And all of a sudden people were getting to know me, and I was connecting with people. At its core Twitter is about sharing, and I think that in life we never feel better or more energized than when we're giving to someone else.

PATTY JENKINS: You've had interactions where you were able to help save people's lives.

DEMI MOORE: The first time a tweet came in from someone asking for help [the tweeter had hinted that she might be considering suicide], I really weighed it out—is this somebody looking for attention? Is this real? I didn't quite know how to react, but there was something that just intuitively struck me: Don't ignore this. People wrote me, saying, "Don't give this person attention," [but] I responded, "I'm worried." And within a really short time, people tracked down who this person was, contacted the police in the town and got someone there to help. While I don't think that Twitter is really an appropriate place for someone who seriously needs help, it shows the impact that we can have when we collectively come together to support someone.

PATTY JENKINS: Do you know anything about why she reached out to you?

DEMI MOORE: I don't. The only reason I can think of is that it's linked to the fact that my father killed himself.

PATTY JENKINS: It's interesting that people can [think] that no one else might understand in that moment, but that maybe you would.

DEMI MOORE: Yes, and with Twitter people oddly feel accountable for what they write. When someone is unkind, the community rallies like you wouldn't believe to shut it down.

PATTY JENKINS: OK, so what do you still get giddy about? Glamour's asking you, Jen and Alicia this same question.

DEMI MOORE: I'm an old-school romantic, so I get giddy when Ashton shows me another way of saying "I love you"—any little thought or gesture that's playful or sweet. We leave Post-it notes for each other; some have been sticking up for five or six years! For me, it's the small things. The first day of filming Charlotte, Ashton sent this bouquet of soft blue flowers with a card that said, "I believe in you." I put them in this little room that I parked myself in while we were shooting in the rest of the house, and that was the room that we shot my movie's final scene in.

PATTY JENKINS: I noticed them—I remember the color.

DEMI MOORE: The other thing that makes me giddy is my purse monkey. [*Demi carries a tiny toy monkey in her purse and tweets photos of it during her travels. *] He's lived in my bag for four years. It's purely for my own entertainment—he gives love to the kid in me. Alicia Keys

Keys directed* Lili*, a film about a fiercely independent 35-year-old whose breast cancer forces her to work through her relationship with her mother. She talked to Penelope Spheeris, director of megahit Wayne's World and the* Five* film *Cheyenne. *

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: How did you get involved with Five?

ALICIA KEYS: Kristin [Hahn] and Jen called me up; after I read the scripts, I felt like this was something important, and I wanted to be a part of it. I chose Lili because she's close to my age and I understood the family dynamic. I had an immediate idea of what I could bring to it.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: Have you had any personal experiences with breast cancer?

ALICIA KEYS: Yes, people very close to me in my family have had it, and it's scary and it's hard.

ALICIA KEYS: It's my organization that I founded with a brilliant woman, Leigh Blake. I was asked to go to Africa for an AIDS-awareness trip when I was about 20 or 21, and the thing that struck me the most was that here we have teenagers going through teenage things, like "Is that boy going to like me?" But there it was "Is that boy going to like me now that he knows my mother died of AIDS? Is he going to think I have AIDS too?" I remember thinking, This is my generation. I can't just pretend I didn't experience this.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: I can't believe you've done as much as you have. [Keep a Child Alive has reportedly raised $27 million.] And you're so profoundly talented. Which leads me to my next question: How do you feel about shows like The Voice and American Idol? Ever watch those?

ALICIA KEYS: I used to watch American Idol a little bit. My grandmother sucked me into it, and I was like, "Why am I watching this, Nana?" Initially, I felt like it was showing people that to be an artist you're just supposed to get on TV. But as time passed, and the industry changed, I started thinking of it as an outlet for people who otherwise wouldn't have any opportunity to be heard. Now I think it's a good thing. When you're talented, you're talented.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: If you were driving in a car and one of your songs came on the radio, which one would you sit and listen to all the way through: "Fallin'," "Empire State of Mind," "If I Ain't Got You" or "Unbreakable"?

ALICIA KEYS: I mean, I don't want to sound crazy, but I'd listen to all of them all the way through. I love them. I love those songs!

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: Your husband, Swizz Beatz, has said that your relationship is "a blessing." Do you feel that way too?

ALICIA KEYS: Yes. It's beautiful because rarely, I think, do you find a relationship where you can experience things equally. In fact, I think that's my favorite word and the most important word when it comes to relationships: equality. And that's what we've been able to find. We encourage each other equally. We're excited for each other.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: Do you remember the moment when you fell in love?

ALICIA KEYS: I do remember the exact moment. If I told you, I would have to kill you, but it was something that he planned, and he planned it so beautifully and thoughtfully that in that moment I remember thinking to myself, Oh my God, I'm so in love with him.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: What makes you giddy? I bet I can guess, and he's just about a year old….

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: Do you ever think about the kind of man you want Egypt to be?

ALICIA KEYS: I do think about it a lot. He's going to be a man in this world. It's a beautiful blessing that I get to help raise a man. And I want to show him as much as possible.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: You went to Egypt, and you had a sort of breakthrough moment, right? Is that why your son is named Egypt?

ALICIA KEYS: Definitely. It was a time of transition. There were certain people [I was working with] who weren't right. I had friends who weren't right anymore. I was tired and I had overworked myself and burnt myself out. So I went to Egypt by myself. When I saw what was built there, it made me understand how powerful we are, that we can create anything. And I felt like I needed to create things that were timeless too.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: See, I call a nervous breakdown a "nervous breakthrough," because every time I ever had one, it was a breakthrough. It sounds like what happened to you.

ALICIA KEYS: Exactly.

PENELOPE SPHEERIS: So what do you hope for your family?

ALICIA KEYS: We're such a bonded happy family, and I hope that we'll always be able to be that. For me, the most important thing is that we always take the time to understand each other and grow together. We're all going to change. Otherwise, it's boring. Who wants to stay the damn same all their life?